Setting sail for a new Adventure

Ketch set to begin trip to Charles Towne Landing

SCPRT

The Adventure, a reproduction of a 17th-century sailing vessel, was constructed by Rockport Marine in Rockport, Maine.

God willing and the wind holds, the Adventure launches Saturday for her maiden voyage home.

The reproduction 17th century trading ketch is scheduled, weather permitting, to leave its builder's dock in Rockport, Maine, and is expected to tie up at Charles Towne Landing before the end of the month.

It replaces the sailing ship that was the feature exhibit at the state historic site in West Ashley for 30 years before it sank in 2004.

"It's a milestone for me," said Charles Towne Landing manager Rob Powell, whose first day on the job was the day in 2004 that the rotted hull and keel of the old boat was lifted out of Old Towne Creek. "It's been an emotional roller coaster. The biggest question we've gotten in the past two years since we reopened is, 'When is the ship coming?' "

The builders caution that any schedule for a sailing ship depends on the weather.

The ship will have provisions to make the trip without a stopover, and a 400-mile fuel range to supplement the sails.

The ship ran 7.5 knots during sea trials in the bay this week, faster than its builders thought it would go.

Marty Allwine, the Rockport Marine project manager who oversaw the eight-month building project, wasn't so brash as to predict that the ship would come around treacherous Diamond Shoals off North Carolina without a layover to assess conditions.

"She's stiffer than we thought. She doesn't roll as much as we thought she would. She's a good vessel. She's sound, for sure," he said.

"If the weather allows and the fuel supply allows, we won't come in (to shore) at all. The winds will determine how far we can get."

The trip will be the Adventure's last sail for awhile. Legal liability and other concerns will keep the ketch moored to the dock for the foreseeable future; it will be used as an educational tool as well as an exhibit. The ship will be moved only for annual "haul outs" to clean it and check its condition.

The Adventure's return give Charles Towne Landing a second wind. The park was deteriorating so badly from storms and budget and staff cuts that, by 2002, volunteers worried that the site, where the English first settled in the Carolinas in the 1600s, would soon be sold.

After wrangling during tight budget years, local state legislators in 2006 pushed through $7 million for renovations.

The appropriation was controversial, with parks across the state short of money and needing repairs. The site closed for the first time maybe since the settlers' 17th century landing there to make the improvements.

In 2007, S.C. Parks won another $1.4 million in state money to rebuild the ship.

"It was a really beautiful feeling to be out on the water under full sail," said Patrick Cook, the site's history and education coordinator, who cared for the old ship and had grown sentimental about her. He was aboard for the sea trials.

"It's nice having the Adventure new again," he said. "I think I already have a sentimental attachment to her."